(Editor’s Note: This is an article submitted by Malte Wiedenmann, seasoned mechanic and long distance adventurer, currently (and since some time) managing repairs at Fahrrad Cohrt in Hamburg, a must-to destination for bike lovers of all stripes, and one of our fine Dealers of Excellence.  Malte was kind enough to share some words and pictures regarding one of his life’s great loves.)

“Back in 87 or 88, the Mountain-Bike-Boom was on and somewhere in Taiwan a sturdy frame was welded. The main triangle consisted of 4130 CrMo-steel. Equipped with the complete (somewhat heavy but reliable) Shimano Exage 450 Mountain groupset, I purchased a bike in Whakatane/New-Zealand labelled as the Healing “Wild Thing”.

(Healing used to be one of two major bicycle-companies in New Zealand. The company has gone by now, leaving only a few traces on the net.)

After some more or less demanding cycling tours up Mt.Tarawera, through Urewera NP or to Hawkes Bay (and regularly driving 230 Jersey-Cows towards the milking-shed) I took it home to Germany.

In 1992 I rode it from Edmonton (Alta.) to Dawson City (YT) on the famous Alaska Highway, only being topped by the wild Dempster Highway, a graveled road stretching over 730kms beyond the Arctic Circle as far as Inuvik (NWT), close to the Arctic Ocean. Completed with a loop in Central-Alaska and another one in Washington State, the whole journey clocked up 9000kms on the odometer.

While being used for every day-use it was consecutively upgraded to DeoreXT. Additional more or less spectacular rides in Northern-Germany made it one of my favourite bikes.

After some trailer-towing at home and on vacation the “Wild Thing” was degraded to a pure winter-vehicle for the days when the other (spike-tire-equipped) mountain-bike would have been too noisy.

And some day it ended up totally dismantled in the basement for a five year long sleep …

Last winter I decided to wake it up. The old paint got stripped and new a powder-coating was applied. Mostly used parts but also some old, unused components were fitted. Only the Deore shifters have to be replaced by the precious and hard to get XT-thumb-shifters and the XT (730-735/737) groupset will be complete.

BTW: on top I mounted my well broken in, 23 years young, Brooks Professional!”

Malte from Hamburg, North Germany

We briefly touched last month on the MY BIKE exhibition in Paris. Hosted by the Cohens at their design emporium Merci, the show was planned with serious bicycle historians and style conscious urban commuters in mind. Fortunately, plenty of both camps made it to the opening night in January, and plenty more have continued to fetch up at the door, hopeful of a glimpse at the future of cycling and cyclewear, as well as its past.

The Grand Opening on 21 January.

Early 1900s Bicycle with Original Brooks Saddle.

The tasteful and spacious surroundings of the Cohens’ store provides a perfect backdrop for displaying not just some of the most magnificently designed bicycles in history, but also some installation pieces inspired by the notion of two human powered wheels.

The 72 Bulb Bicycle Wheel Installation by Tom Dixon for “My Bike” at Merci.

One of the Brooks Displays at Merci.

Abici Bicycle Equipped with Brick Lane Panniers and Hampstead Holdall.

A Modern Pedersen Bicycle.

Bizarre Van Hulsteijn Bicycle.

It was possibly a case of “Merci-an Beaucoup” as erstwhile-extremely-useful-but-nowadays-merely-very-useful rider Paul Smith’s beautiful green limited edition track frame took centre stage.

Mercian Paul Smith Bike at the Entrance of Merci.

City Bikes on Display at Merci.

MY BIKE Urban Transportation.

Cinelli Bicycle.

Another of the Paul Smith Mercians, with Cinelli in the background.

The Bicycle Clothing Corner with PEdALED and Rapha Garments.

Special Brooks Saddles. Halos, or a trick of the light?

A Vintage Mizutani Super Cycle.

The exhibition remains open at Merci until the 18th of February. Locals and visitors are therefore advised to take advantage post-haste of the fabulous new Parisian regulations governing cyclists and their duties at red lights, and pay the show a worthwhile visit.

The iconic Team Car at Merci.

Responsivity to traffic lights by road users in continental Europe famously operates on the following North to South sliding scale – Directive, Suggestion, Christmas Decoration. So it was with interest at Boultbee Towers that we recently learned of plans to permit cyclists in Paris to “griller les feux” as they see fit.

Readers of the Brooks Blog will be aware that we have lately focussed some of our attention on the Renaissance of cycling in the French capital. The Vélib free bike scheme, the recent MYBIKE show, the existence of a pair of Six-Rivet Brooks Dealers Of Excellence there… these important factors have all played their composite part in the rediscovery of la bicyclette by the citizens of La Ville-Lumière.

A Quaintrelle, pictured in Paris before the advent of the traffic light, perhaps.

At any rate, the Fraternity of the human powered wheel awakens this morning to discover that a strangely positive blow has been dealt to Equality in France. Cyclists are now pretty much at Liberty to “run” red lights. In Paris. At fifteen specially selected junctions.

Apparently, a similarly worded statute is also operative in Germany and Belgium. In Germany the rule is arguably rather limited in that it allows cyclists make a right through red at a junction, but only in the short changeover between sequences, i.e. when their light is still red, but when everybody else’s is too.

Sudden, previously illegal acceleration through a crossroads is made easy with a three-speeder.

The French ruling leaves numerous avenues of choice open to the individual rider. The right turn on a red is covered, but so too is riding straight through a crossroads while trucks, cars and motorbikes still must wait for a green.

With such freedoms, of course, come lashings of responsibility, and the blame for any accidents arising out of a cyclist’s executive decision to disregard a red light will be laid at his, and not at an involved motorist’s or pedestrian’s door.

It seems, however, that until now no increase in road traffic accidents has been discernible where pilot schemes have been in operation. And if the experiment seems to be safely easing the clutter of bikes at the fifteen test junctions, the new rules will take city-wide effect.

A Small Triumph for Common Sense, or Licence to Thrill?

Talking to Zimbabwe’s Seán Conway, one gets the impression of dealing with a man who has a lot of irons in the fire. This makes him no different from the rest of the riders signed up to take a shot at the Guinness world record for fastest circumnavigation of the earth in 2012. But with incidental things likes overseeing solar power projects for schools in Africa, endurance canoeing marathons, swimming the Channel, and even booking transfer flights to keep him occupied, you could almost forget the small matter of an entire planet which will very soon need to be lapped by bike. As quickly as possible. But not Seán.

Besides raising money for Solar Aid, why are you doing this?

Besides raising money for Solar Aid, why are you doing this?

The charity side of it is a huge part- solar is such a simple and effective way to tackle global warming, increase education and save lives. But also testing myself, testing what’s humanly possible, and achieving something that for many many years seemed only a distant dream that you read about in the paper once in a while. It is, simply put, an adventure. Though of course in its purest form, adventure is simply a way of thinking. I think adventurously.

What has been the toughest part of the preparation?

Route selection is probably the toughest part. It’s so hard to know whether the route you have chosen goes over a huge mountain or not. Everything else is the same for everyone. It’s the route that can make or break a record and that’s the thing keeping me up at night right now. I decided to take part quite late and have only been in training for 8 months. It can take years to get the stamina in your tendons. But physical training is only a small part of the preparation. As I say, route selection is a puzzle, but logistical planning for food, sleep, flights, visas, equipment, spares, navigation and the rest also takes up way more time than cycling.

How can you plan flights and boats ahead of schedule if you don’t know exact arrival times at countries?

I have had to guess arrival times at airports but there may be times when I miss a flight so will just have to beg the airline to help me out. I haven’t booked boats yet as I figured I will just be able to jump on with my bike when I arrive. The plan is to get back to London before the Olympics so I can’t afford any delays.

Seán will be travelling light for the best possible finishing time. If it rains, he gets wet. No big deal!

How much sleep you will be getting and how you are going to eat?

Sleep strategy is the hardest thing to work out. It’s such a fine balance between keeping the miles rolling vs recovery so that you cover more miles the next day. I don’t really know the answer to that and I guess only time will tell. Food is difficult too. Some countries will be easy but other like the Atacama Desert in Chile will be more difficult and I will have to carry what I can. I literally need to eat anything and everything I can find.

What are your plans for getting the head down at night?

I have no plan really. It all depends how well I am feeling. I will be taking a tent, sleeping bag and mattress and will camp whenever I need too. What I won’t do is cut my days short in order to stay in a hotel. Graveyards are a great place to camp as people tend to stay clear of them at night.

And what does your training schedule look like?

I currently spend about 25 hours a week on the bike and then spend another 5 or so in the gym. I am trying to vary my training with some short sprints, hill work and some long rides. Nothing can compare to the race but I can only hope to replicate some of the fatigue I am going to have to endure.

Do you speak any languages other than English?

I can speak Zulu and Afrikaans but I don’t imagine either of them will be terribly helpful on this trip. I hope to learn Spanish along the way via audio books. That should be fun and keep me occupied.

Lapping a velodrome is good psychological training for those planning to lap a planet.

Rolling through South America with Don Quixote on the earphones, perhaps?

Cycling is a great way to see the world due to the huge distances you can cover in a short period of time. The feeling of freewheeling down a long road after a long day is second to none.

Can people help?

There are loads of ways you can get involved from helping me with route tips, places to see, places to avoid and choosing songs for my iPod. Most of all I am looking for people to help me Solarise Africa by paying for a school to be solarised which is as little as £1000, or simply providing a family with a Solar Lamp for £6 so that they no longer need to use kerosene. Please help me banish the kerosene lamp.

What bike are you using?

I am using a full steel frame bike with 2 small bags on the back. I want to be a lightweight as possible yet not sacrifice comfort too much as being uncomfortable is just as bad, if not worse, than having a heavy bike.

Have you met any of the others that will be competing for the title?

I have seen them on Twitter and Facebook. There are a few really hard core guys. It’s great. It really pushes everyone’s game up.

Those intrepid souls gunning for a place in the record books when they leave London by bike on February 18th as part of the World Cycle Racing Grand Tour have just had their job made that little bit harder.

We mentioned on the Brooks Blog earlier this week that a rumour was doing the rounds of a soon to be ratified finishing time of somewhere in the region of a hundred days for one complete circumnavigation of the earth.

And bear in mind that the previous best had been set by Vin Cox, and stood at 163 days.

One night in Bangkok

Clarification has arrived in the shape of a new entry in the Guinness Book. Alan Bate is the new record holder, having managed to put down an inhuman daily average of about 250km over all sorts of terrain, and in all sorts of weather.

Unlike Mr. Cox and the riders setting off from London in a month’s time, however, Alan rode with a partial support team in tow, a little over half of his time on the road. Which of course should not, and does not, detract from his massive achievement, but which should be worth bearing in mind when Grand Tour finishing times are collated in the summer.

Alan praying at the King’s palace in Thailand

Even though they seem to be rather separate entities, Guinness currently makes no differentiation between a fully or partially supported ride, and a completely solo one. But who knows, this may, and probably will, change.

Incidentally, first up with congratulations to Mr Bate on the Guinness site was the record’s previous holder.

We caught up with Alan this week and asked him a bit about how he got on after spending a good hour learning more about him on his website, www.worldcyclingrecord.com.

Alan powering through Brazil

When asked how he could have dominated the current record so powerfully, Mr. Bate had this to say:

“I am an extreme endurance specialist and often went out on 15 hour training rides. I have the records for time trialling from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, 26 hours, Phuket to Bangkok 29 hours and was fifth in the British 24 hour champs, without any preparation way back in 1991. I trained for three years for the record, sacrificed comfort for speed on a road bike with a rack and panniers weiging in at just 8 kilos. I had 53 supported days. I am the only pure racer to attempt it and soon my record will go again, I am sure. A top pro will do 80 days.

In Australia I suffered death threats, whils in a tent, USA, someone tried to steal my bike, lots of abuse shouted from cars, things thrown at me and threats. Hit with a stick one day, crashed in Portugal and lost a day, started with a bad leg infection in Bangkok after crashing three time in the last two weeks before the ride. Knocked off by a car the morning of the ride starting.”

Added to the stress of incredibly long distances, uncertain sleeping arrangements and indescribable fatigue, one must also contend with the sometimes backward inhabitants of certain stretches of the big globe, making one’s fellow man likely the greatest danger these athletes often face.

As the riders countdown to the kickoff on 18 February, we’ll be talking to some of the participants next week.

As readers of the Brooks blog must be only too well aware, in about a month now London will be the starting point for perhaps the most ambitious and dramatic cycling event the world has yet seen.

It’s true to say that most individuals attempting to break the world record for Fastest Circumnavigation of the Earth by Bicycle this year will hit the start button of their stopwatches on February 18th somewhere in the English capital.

GPS trackers, along with a website providing an overview of each rider’s progress with links to social media outlets will make following race progress from one’s armchair as rewarding as taking the day off work to hear Seán Kelly et al on Eurosport during a make-or-break stage of Le Tour.

And Brooks, of course, has been telling you about this since Day One.

Never before in a calendar year have so many riders decided to take a crack at this special record. And never before have most of these riders been pulled together under one roof, so to speak.

If your support team is travelling with you on one of these, we’ll let your time count.

Indeed, before a single mile has been clocked up, the fact that we may witness the race at all is testament to the patience, decency and willingness to work together displayed by all the participating cyclists so that their individual efforts over the coming months can be viewed also as contributory parts to a single event by the watching world.

Until a couple of days ago, most of the more ambitious members of this unique peloton were looking at a record of 163 days to beat, this last set by Vin Cox in 2010. Mr Cox, it will be noted, made his attempt without a support team, and this applies also to all of the riders who set off from London in February.

(Mr. Cox, it should be noted, is also the man whose dream of a coordinated attempt has become a reality.)

However, in the criteria laid down by the Guinness Book Of Records for a ratifiable record attempt, nowhere does it say that a rider may not travel with a support team.

It was with this in mind that we learned recently of a, rumour had it, successful attempt at Mr Cox’s record.

A good circumnavigation takes in a plethora of different landscapes.

Ex-pro Alan Bate seemingly ticked all the Guinness boxes in 2010 aswell, clocking up over 18000 miles, hitting two antipodal points, handing in a satisfactorily updated log book etc., etc. and all of this inside a staggeringly brief 96 days! But he did, it seems, have a support team along with him for most of the trip.

Whether the support team provided him with something to ride behind on windy days, or carried all his luggage, or simply offered strong words of encouragement is not immediately clear. Whichever way we look at it, the achievement of putting down a consecutive daily average of about 250km for three months in all sorts of weather is none the less great.

Of course this also makes the rash of forthcoming attempts to make the journey without technical support teams all the more impressive.

If you blast through stop signs, Guinness will not ratify your time.

As of this morning, Mr Cox’s record still stood on the Guinness website, and as things stand at Boultbee Towers, the rider from the group setting off in February who arrives back in London fastest will be our winner. And if he makes it there in under 163 days, we’ll be more than happy to vouch for him in any discussions with the extraordinarily fine people over at St. James’ Gate.

In the meantime, though, a provisional well done once again to Mr. Bate. Everybody else, please check back with us on the blog over the coming weeks, where we will be interviewing some of those looking to do it unsupported in 150. Or fewer…

No major world city  has remained untouched by the resurgence of bicycling as a means of undertaking one’s urban commute, or simply getting around. And by any scale of measurement, we can probably all agree that Paris is a major world city.

It was with this in mind that we took a look last week at one of our Parisian Brooks Supreme Dealers Of Excellence, and today take a look today at MY BIKE, an upcoming exhibition taking place in Paris. It will showcase some should-haves for the bicycliste looking to cut a smart yet practical dash both on and off two wheels.

As the organisers have it – “The mode of cycling in the city is no accident: it is a lifestyle, an attitude. Therefore Merci, always attentive to changing lifestyles, brought together the Best of Bicycling on the theme of Transportation in the City. For if the bike is a hobby, it is also a means of transportation from home to place-of-work. Increasingly, it adapts to our daily needs.”

Agreed. However, it’s fairly accurate to say that until recently, the only conspicuous cycling one might be witness to in Paris over the course of a normal year would be on the final day of Le Tour.

This is no longer how things are. In the past decade, fixie-equipped bike messengers and freewheeling bike polo players, along with basketed-and-belled devotees of the “Slow Bike” movement have once again taken to the Paris streets en masse after a half-century in the wilderness.

And because it’s Paris, they of course all need to be looking their best. This can involve great, yet subtle, attention to detail, such as establishing how the gleam of their mini cable lock plays against the colour of their shoes.

It of course also involves getting the unspoken basics right. Such as having a Brooks, any Brooks, attached to seatpost. So we’re showing a few things at MY BIKE. And Hideto Suzuki’s PEDALeD label is also going to be there.

It can be difficult these days to keep up with (and ascertain the quality of) the ever-growing number of casual bikewear brands, and the collaborative agreement which Brooks and Hideto made last year was of course partially designed to help people in this regard.

The hosting site of the MY BIKE show, Merci, is itself a rather interesting shop, set up by Marie-France Cohen and her husband Bernhard. It invites renowned  designers to produce one-off or limited edition pieces. These items are then placed for sale at Merci, and specially marked on the floor by the little gold stars attached to them. Neither the store’s owners nor the designers take any cut of profits on “starred” products, so that the proceeds go to help fund a children’s charity effort in Madagascar.

MY BIKE at Merci.

January 18th – February 18th 2012
111 Boulevard Beumarchais
75003 Paris

It is tempting nowadays for bike shop owners to narrow their range of machines to a specific style of bicycle. There are lots of reasons for this. As a “specialist” for one particular bike or cycling-related line of products, the stockist is almost guaranteed a (perhaps small, yet) fiercely loyal constituency of people prepared to spend money at his premises, often on items surplus to their immediate requirements. Which is a nice constituency to be selling to in 2012.

But the Reboux Brothers, Sebastian and Julien, in their Brooks be-rivetted emporium Les Vélos Parisiens in the French capital’s 7th arrondissement do things differently. They sell everything. Or at least, it can certainly seem that way.

The challenges which attach to offering a broad range as an independent seller are many. One must ensure that throughout, the frames and other items for sale have been built to the highest standards within their particular class.

And a shop offering repair service to their entire range of, say, various folding bikes, cargo bikes, touring bikes, childrens’ bikes, street bikes, locked cogs and tandems will clearly have need of creative, experienced mechanics.

The owners are not averse to organizing the occasional themed group ride.

Fortunately, the brothers are in a position to tick these and many other boxes. And in their endeavours they are ably assisted by another pair of safe hands in Rohloff hub enthusiast Christoph Parent.

One of the corners at LVP given over to Brooks saddles.

A couple of years ago, the Brooks Dealers Of Excellence Programme came into being. It was an initiative designed to give a somewhat saddle-centric overview of recommendable locations to Brooks customers, but also to draw deserved attention to bike shops in various parts of the world which seemed in comparison with their neighbours to go that extra mile, as it were.

Brooks rates a shop by the number of “rivets” with which it is decorated. Les Vélos Parisiens has six, the maximum obtainable and one of only two such decorated establishments in the whole of France.

The criteria here are not just an abundace of the finest in English Cycling Leather on the premises, but also a well stocked humidor, at least three vintage Champagnes to choose from and a reliably delicious Chateaubriand… where were we? At any rate, the rating system does tend to look favourably on shops that have a certain je ne sais quoi.

Their efforts are rewarded by Brooks in various ways. It’s no coincidence that at Les Vélos Parisiens, for example, you might find one of our Limited Edition saddles somehow magically available.

Formidable, Magnifique, Etc.

But as well as the more exotic pieces in our portfolio, Les Vélos Parisiens also stocks most of our standard perches, as well as selected accessories and bags. And please be advised that any monsieurs or madameoiselles running dangerously low on Proofide close to the weekend should set things right by Saturday at the latest.

Because for the Reboux Brothers, Lundi, as well as Dimanche, is a day of rest.

Les Vélos Parisiens
3 rue de l’Abbé Grégoire
75006 PARIS

Website here.

“Sven was the strongest today. That’s how it works in a race. The best would win today on a course like this and that was Sven today.”

Seemingly innocuous, but on closer inspection potentially loaded with HIDDEN MEANING, wouldn’t you say? It all depends on the stress given to specific words, or the judicious placement of a comma or full stop.

The quote in question comes from the gracious mouth of Niels Albert, “First Runner Up” and defending champion at last weekend’s Belgian National Cyclocross Championship. Second is going to hurt at the best of times, but at the BNCXC, that most Cyclocross of Cyclocross events, the pain must have been close to unbearable.

And this without any podium placer compelled by the organisers to get a commemorative tattoo!

That he delivered himself so magnanimously of the preceding gem is a tribute to his sportsmanship and self-control.

We feel, however, that when the light catches it in a certain way, there is more information to absorb than merely that which is communicated upon a reader’s initial inspection.

We therefore invite visitors of the Brooks Blog to take -

Sven was the strongest today. That’s how it works in a race. The best would win today on a course like this and that was Sven today.

- as a base text, and embellish it with italics, full stops, capital letters, brackets, stage directions or anything else which comes to mind in order that the full potency of Mr Albert’s congratulations can be realised.

For example…

Sven was the strongest today?  That’s how it works in (makes invisible speech marks with fingers) a race? The best (points at self) would win today on a course like this. And that was (eyes narrow, fake laughter) SVEN today? (shakes head energetically)

Of course, usually the only winners in Cyclocross are vendors of high pressure hose machines, but if you take a go at tweaking Mr Albert’s kind words (as always, in the Comments Section below) we may have something special for the Second Best Entry.

So get going!

Cyclocross-Congratulatory-Quote-Altering Enthusiasts en route to their laptops.

…Before the race Albert hinted that Nys’ reported back problems would not have been serious. Nys had earlier criticized some riders for not taking part in the cross in Leuven due to minor illnesses, but after the race Albert paid tribute to Nys’ medical team. “I’ve never said that I doubted his injuries. I’ve also had something in my back when picking up a stupid plastic bag. Credit to his team for getting him back in shape so fast because that’s not easy,” Albert said.